The “city building” for a vertical, connected future

The planet will be home to an additional two billion people by 2050, according to the United Nations. To house them, Spanish architect Javier Lopez-Menchero Ortiz de Salazar designed Espiral 3500, a “city building” project that vertically stacks the apartments and public spaces that are ordinarily placed horizontally on the ground. For example, Espiral (named for the street that winds around the building) contains shops, parks, recreational facilities, community vegetable gardens and even a beach, said the architect. In an interview with Usbeck & Rica, he described his vision of the city of the future: “Buildings will no longer be isolated from each other. In the city of the future, connecting infrastructure will play a key role in boosting energy system performance.”